The Education Secretary has announced that staff and students in every secondary school and college across England will have access to rapid coronavirus testing from January to help keep them as safe as possible and, crucially in education.

It has taken a phenomenal effort to ensure 99 per cent of schools have been open since the start of term, and this expansion of rapid testing marks a milestone moment in our work to keep schools and colleges open for all.

From next month, as part of an initial rollout, staff and students will be eligible for daily testing if they have been a close contact of someone who has tested positive, helping end the need for those in the same school bubble to self-isolate if someone develops coronavirus symptoms.

Testing on this scale brings real benefits to education, by enabling more children, teachers and staff to stay in the classroom and further minimising disruption to our young people’s studies. Roughly one in three people have the virus without symptoms so could be spreading the disease unknowingly. Asymptomatic testing helps to identify positive cases more quickly, and break chains of transmission.

The pilots that have taken place in schools and colleges over the autumn term have shown the positive impact regular testing can have in finding asymptomatic cases before they spread and reducing the need to self-isolate amongst staff and students.

The pilots have shown how testing is an additional reassurance and protective measure, on top of the wide range of effective measures schools and colleges already have in place, including increased hygiene, ventilation, and wearing of face coverings in communal areas where appropriate.

Consent will be given in all cases by the staff member, student, or parent as appropriate. Close contacts of positive cases who do not want to participate in daily testing will still be able to self-isolate as is currently the case.

Primary schools will then be supported to roll out testing as quickly as possible over the spring term.